Aerial imagery captured during a helicopter fly‑over has prompted fresh questions about how fugitive father Tom Phillips and his three children sustained themselves while living rough in remote New Zealand bush for nearly four years.
The photograph, taken about 7 kilometres from the location where Phillips was shot dead by police on Monday, appears to show three large white metal containers fitted with power cords, wiring and what looks like a generator. Police have not confirmed whether the site is linked to Phillips or commented directly on the image’s significance to their investigation.
Footage and photographs released by police from the cordoned area near Te Anga Road, in the Waitomo district of the North Island’s Waikato region, show a large quantity of equipment and debris at a number of bush campsites. Items seized or pictured at the scenes include a quad bike and motorbike, multiple farm bikes, an air compressor, tyres, tarpaulins, camping poles, gas bottles, drink containers, cooking equipment, power tools and what appeared to be a toilet bowl.
Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders said investigators were increasingly confident that Phillips had received outside help to evade detection. "Aside from the burglaries we are now able to link to Tom, it is apparent that he had outside help," he said. Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said highly trained negotiators engaged with the children during the operation and described the oldest child, Jayda, 12, as "very, very helpful" in advising officers how to speak with her younger siblings without causing them alarm.
Phillips, 38, was killed after police intercepted him with his eldest daughter following an alleged armed robbery at a farm supply store near the rural town of Piopio. Officers deployed road spikes and, police say, Phillips fired at close range, critically wounding one officer. The ensuing shooting ended a manhunt described by authorities as among the largest in New Zealand history.
Jayda was with Phillips at the time of the shootout. Police said she led them to a campsite about 2 kilometres away where the other two children, Maverick, 10, and Ember, 9, were found hiding. Police discovered a second nearby site where the family had been eating and sleeping. Authorities said the sites located this week were likely temporary and that Phillips had been mobile, operating across multiple campsites.
All three children are now in the care of Oranga Tamariki, New Zealand’s Ministry for Children. Their mother, Christine Christey, known as Cat, issued a statement saying the family had been "dearly missed every day for nearly four years" and that she was relieved the ordeal had come to an end while expressing sadness about how events unfolded.
Police said evidence gathered at the scenes and links to a series of burglaries have broadened the scope of the inquiry from simply locating the family to identifying anyone who may have assisted them. Authorities offered an NZ$80,000 reward during the search but said no one had come forward to reveal the family’s whereabouts.
Phillips disappeared from the small coastal settlement of Marokopa in December 2021 amid a custody dispute with the children’s mother. He had no legal custody at the time, police said. In an earlier episode in 2021, Phillips and the children were missing for 17 days before emerging from forested land and saying they had been camping; a truck belonging to Phillips had been found abandoned on a nearby beach. He was charged with wasting police resources after that incident and then vanished again before a court appearance.
Authorities say Phillips later became the subject of criminal investigations that included a 2023 armed bank robbery in which he was alleged to have been accompanied by one of his children and to have fired at a member of the public while fleeing. Police have also linked him to a number of thefts and break‑ins believed to have supplied the family with food and equipment.
A High Court judge on Monday evening issued a temporary injunction limiting disclosure of certain details of the case. Police Minister Mark Mitchell said officials had a careful plan to support and protect the children and to manage their recovery. "They have seen and been exposed to things that children in our country should not be. It's very complicated and it's very complex and it has been for quite some time," he said.
Investigators have confirmed only two campsites so far but said the terrain had been searched previously and that it was unlikely those sites represented the primary base where the children had lived for years. Officers told media the combination of equipment recovered — including items capable of providing power and mechanical support — had intensified interest in the possibility of assistance from other people, a line of inquiry police say will be a chief focus going forward.
Police also face questions about how the family evaded extensive searches in a small area for such a long period. Commissioner Chambers said it was "highly likely" searchers had been very close to the family at times. Authorities have pledged to "put the puzzle together" by tracing movements, identifying linked offending and following any leads on who may have helped Phillips and the children survive in the wild.
The investigation remains active and police said they would continue to gather evidence from the campsites, interview witnesses and pursue inquiries into alleged accomplices. The children’s immediate welfare and a path toward recovery are being handled by social services and specialist police teams, officials said.